Damascus, SANA – Due to the increasing need for providing intensive care to children due to the crimes committed against them by terrorists, it became necessary to increase cooperation between the civil sector and the government to provide services for them, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Rima al-Qadiri told SANA in an interview on occasion of World Children’s Day.

Throughout the past seven years of the war of terrorism waged on the country, the requirements of children have incredibly mounted where tens of thousands of children have lost their families, houses and schools, pushing the NGOs to participate in the government’s support efforts in order to protect children and provide them with their needs.

Minister al-Qadiri said that the widely-increasing social needs make the integration of work between NGOs and the government a must, and this must be carried out in accordance with specific criteria without affecting the quality of services, adding that although there are some gaps but the public-private partnership experience is successful in general.

She stressed the need to exert more efforts to provide the necessary services for children, adding that the efforts concentrate on the health and educational fields, in addition to family care.

With regards to orphaned children, the Minister pointed out to the sustainable project launched by the Ministry to address this issue, saying that it is difficult to provide accurate numbers of the orphans in Syria, adding that the Ministry is focusing on social studies and surveys, as it has allocated SYP 500 million for them in its investment projects so that they can provide data for establishing a database.

As for children with special needs, al-Qadiri said that work is underway to establish a national registry for people with special needs, with emphasis on the childhood stage, in order to improve services via a project that provides sponsors for them.

She went on to address the issue of children who lack familiar care or are homeless or beggars, saying that these children are treated in a precise and professional manner through the case-management system for each child in order to provide the best protection for them.